Check the Facts
Benefitting the Koch Brothers and Friends
Kochs win big if Keystone XL pipeline is approved
Climate Progress -- February 11, 2011
If president Obama allows a permit for the Keystone XL to be granted, he would be handing a big victory and great financial opportunity to Charles and David Koch, his bitterest political enemies and among the most powerful opponents of his clean economy agenda.
Koch Industries Handles 25 Percent of Canada Tar Sand Oil
Koch subsidiary, Flint Hills Resources, operates a Minnesota refinery that's capable of processing 320,000 barrels of crude a day, about four-fifths of which is sourced from Alberta. They don't want clean energy laws to impact those operations.
Keystone XL Pipeline will generate up to $15 Trillion
The Economist – January 20, 2011
All this is making Alberta the flag-bearer of a new oil age, and the province is already becoming wealthy. At 173 billion recoverable barrels, the tar sands are worth $15.7 trillion at today's price. As the resource owner, Alberta captures much of this wealth, but a good deal filters through to the rest of Canada in contracts for goods and services as well as in federal equalization payments that send some of the rich west's billions to poorer eastern provinces.
Koch Industries is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters.
Kochind.com
Flint Hills Resources is among Canada's largest crude oil purchasers, shippers and exporters. To meet the needs of its more than 90 Canadian crude oil customers, the Supply Group operates a fully integrated marketing and customer service desk in Calgary and operates a crude oil terminal in Hardisty, Alberta.
Higher prices at the pump
Keystone XL may mean higher Canadian crude prices:
Associated Press -- January 25, 2011
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- TransCanada Corp. said Tuesday that it expects to see an increase in prices for Canadian heavy crude oil in the Midwest if its Keystone XL pipeline is approved to move oil from Canada down through several states to the Gulf of Mexico.
Big Oil's Pipeline Scheme to Increase Midwest Gas Prices
National Wildlife Federation -- January 24, 2011
National Wildlife Federation has recently exposed industry documents that prove that the massive oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas coast is little more than a shell game designed to reduce Canadian oil supplies in America's Midwest and increase prices by as much as 15 cents a gallon.
As TransCanada pushes out a false line on Middle Eastern oil, NRDC releases important pipeline safety report
Natural Resources Defense Council -- February 18, 2011
TransCanada and its allies often argue not only that the pipeline will reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern oil but that it will make gas cheaper at the pump. The Ensys report found two things – one, that the price of crude in the Midwest will increase if the pipeline is built, and, two – that refinery investments were likely to move from the Midwest to the Gulf. (It did not find that building the pipeline would decrease the price of tar sands crude in the Gulf.)
The proposed Keystone XL Pipeline can be used by Canadian Oil Shippers to add up to $4 Billion to U.S. Fuel Costs
Wildlife Promise – April 7, 2011
On January 25, TransCanada spokesman Terry Cunha told the AP that a $3-a-barrel increase is expected for the price of Canadian heavy crude oil in the Midwest if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved.
Canadian heavy crude oil refers to Alberta tar sands.
Dangers of Dirty Oil
Friends of the Earth database
Pollution from tar sands oil greatly eclipses that of conventional oil. During tar sands oil production alone, levels of carbon dioxide emissions are three times higher than those of conventional oil, due to more energy-intensive extraction and refining processes. The Keystone XL pipeline would carry 900,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil into the United States daily, doubling our country's reliance on it and resulting in climate-damaging emissions equal to adding more than six million new cars to U.S. roads.
A Giant Pipeline Carrying Dirty Oil From Canada to Texas. What Could Go Wrong?
Mother Jones -- January/February 2011
Last year was quite a year for oil and gas disasters. In addition to the BP blowout, there was a leak on BP's TransAlaska pipeline, a million-gallon oil spill in Michigan, and a gas explosion that destroyed 37 homes and killed eight people in California. So it would seem like a lousy time for a Canadian company to propose building a pipeline, the Keystone XL, right through the middle of the continent—especially one that may be unnecessary and that even some oil companies think is overpriced.
Dangers to drinking water for more than 2 million people
US Geological Survey
Almost 2 million people rely on the High Plains aquifer for their drinking water.
Hillary Clinton's Involvement
No to a New Tar Sands Pipeline
New York Times – April 2, 2011
State is involved because the pipeline would cross an international boundary. Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton first said she was “inclined” to support it, but has lately sounded more neutral. An environmental assessment carried out by her department last year was sharply criticized by the Environmental Protection Agency for understating the project's many risks.
State Department and Dirty Tar Sands Pipelines
Futurism Now – April 15, 2011
Later this year, the U.S. State Department will decide whether to approve construction of a 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast called Keystone XL.
Open Secrets' record of Former Clinton Aide and Pipeline Lobbyist Paul Elliot
